CH 7,1946
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
MARCH 7,1946
PAGE FIVE
although new. Dived. The serve wiive to the Japan will give year. The serve wiue training
if reserve for many proper fa-
will in,
foreign
— T/3 charged paration
left im- to join
medals
preservative Servi-
tment appeal
to A. C.
L. Newwer.
Gov.
entended the
any at the
has a-
a$a $100.000
utchinson
erl study,
said, call
long and
L. Bohm,
E. Bohm'
ag, son or
among the release of
acces killed
southeast
nce com-
ench bus,
mans, into
Amazing New Miracle Drug May Supplant Penicillin
Streptomycin, Discovered at Rutgers Helps in Fight Against TB, Typhoid
By ROBERT RICHARDS (United Press Staff Correspondent)
New Brunswick, N.J. The small gray man, with the twinkling eyes, was puzzled. "Money?" he asked. "And why should I make any money from it?"
it had been just another job to Dr. Selman A. Waksman, working in the laboratories of Rutgers university. It had been a job, and he had discovered strenuonymin—the new miracle drug developed to succeed where even penicillin has failed.
Dr. Waksman, and his associates, have found the key to a new hope in the struggle against many diseases including tuberculosis. But so far it is only an experiment and still a hope-yet excellent results have been reported.
"It would be both cruel and foolish to raise false hopes at this time." Dr. Waksman said, "but against certain types of tuberculosis our streptomycin definitely shows promise."
Then he settled down in his chair and stared out the window. "But you must understand, we do not do these things for money. Here at Rutgers, we are scientists. It is our work."
WORK.
Dr. Waksman said within six months there would be quite a large commercial supply of streptomycin on the market. "There are 15 companies in the United States now beginning to manufacture it," he said, "and some are even building special plants."
Streptomycin comes from actinomycetes, a type of plant that is half fungus and half bacteria. The streptomycin; producing organism called streptomyces griseae, was finally isolated from the soil and from the throat of a laboratory chicken. Dr. Waksman, and his staff, isolated more than 1,000 strains of actinomycetes before they finally found what they wanted.
"Any company in the United States, with proper facilities, can make streptomycin." Waksman said. "We will welcome them, if they are not fly-by-nights and prove they can do the job. Rutgers university gets only a small royalty from the process, and this royalty will go into a fund for further research."
Dr. Waklsman is only too eager to get streptomycin moving on a mass production basis. A pile of letters lay in one corner of his office, and each letter asks: "When can we get streptomycin?"
Each letter probably represents at least one person who is dying, or in desperate pain.
"I must answer them all the same," Waksmna said. "I must tell them, We regret to say that streptomycin is still produced in limited amounts, and considerable time will elapse before large amounts of it are available for public distribution."
Waksman was born in Russia, near Kiev, in 1888. He came to the United States in 1910 and was graduated from Rutgers in 1915. He received his doctor's degree from the University of California in 1918, and returned to Rutgers in 1921. He is a professor of microbiology teaching mostly graduates, and also serves as microbiologist of the New Jersey agricultural experiment station.
Waksman claims, with a quiet grin, that there was no drama in the discovery and development of streptomycin. There were no tense moments, no sudden climax. "With us, it was work." he said, "and that means both night and day."
But, with or without drama, streptomycin probably has been developed faster than any other known drug. Its discovery was first announced in January, 1944, but it had been actually isolated six months before.
"We had to be sure that there was no mistake," Dr. Wakmsman said.
Two years after its discovery, it was being developed clinically.
"Its rapid development chiefly was due to the fact that we already had both pencillin and sulfa drugs to guide us." Waksman said. "The application and usage of these drugs laid the groundwork for the application and usage of streptomycin."
Waksman said the isolation of (yrothericin, which was announced in
1339, by Dr. Rene Dubos—one of Waksman's former students—had paved the way for application of both penicillin and streptomycin.
"Here at Rutgers we began work on the destructive effect of one microbe upon another long before 1939," he said. "But we were interested in the problem from an agricultural point of view. We were busy studying the importance of these effects in soil processes.
"But when Dubos showed the great potentialities of such compounds we became definitely interested and directed all our energies in that direction."
tion.
It was a long, slow process. In 1941, Waksman and his co-worker, Dr. H. B. Woodruff, isolated a compound called actinomycin.
toxic for animals, he explained. Then next came clavacin, which also was too toxic for animal use, but not as toxic as actinomycin.
"But in experiments it proved too toxic, for animals," he explained.
"Then three years ago we isolated a substance called streptothricin," Dr. Waksman said. "It looked very promising because by this time we knew exactly what we wanted—a substance to react against organisms which penicillin wouldn't affect. We wanted something that would fight a gram-negative bacteria, most of which are immune to penicillin."
which are. However, pharmacological studies showed that streptothricin produced a certain delayed toxicity in the animal body and many bacteria also were found to be resistant to it.
"But, just the same, we realized that we were moving in the right direction," Waksman said. "So we concentrated our efforts on the acinomycetes, searching for an antibiotic capable of inhibiting or destroying the gram-negative bacteria and yet nontoxic in its effect."
And after a long hunt, Wakgsman and another assistant, Albert Schatz, isolated streptomyces griseus and produced streptomycin.
"Sometimes streptomycin and penicillin are successful against the same types of disease," Waksman said. "In such cases penicillin is preferred because it is cheaper to produce and because streptomycin still remains slightly toxic."
Streptomycin is being used in the fight against tuberculosis, typhoid fever—both resistant to penicillin—tularemia, whooping cough, hemolytic influenza, undulant fever, paratyphoid B fever, and gastrointestinal infections such as colitis.
Pharmacists Say Strept-o-my-sin
However, Dr. Waksman said, laboratory tests had shown that prolonged use of streptomycin had failed to cause any functional impairment of the kidney or liver in human beings.
New York. (UP)—Columbia university's College of Pharmacy gives the correct pronunciation of streptomycin as "strept-o-my-sin" with the accent on the third syllable.
Streptomycin is a fine white powder and may be given to a person either internally, or through injections. "It is far more effective when injected." Waksman said.
Waksman explained his discovery of streptomycin this way:
"We knew that certain microbes will destroy others," he said. "The observation of these microbes has been our life work. So we simply sought to isolate a microbe which would be the most effective against other types of microbes, such as those in typhoid or tuberculosis. When we found this microbe, we built him up and fattened him under ideal conditions. Then we robbed him of his fighting chemicals and used this substance, for ourselves, against typhoid or tuberculosis in human beings.
Waksman said it was something like being a referee between two human enemies. "Suppose one group of scientists is developing an atomic bomb," he explained, "which you know can destroy another group. Well, in the case of the microbes, we just helped them develop their atomic bomb to its absolute perfection and then we took it away from them and used it to help out in our own fight."
Waksman also made clear, with the present limited amount of clinical data available, that it was as yet impossible to assay completely the value of streptomycin.
Like John Paul Jones, it has just begun to fight.
LAWRENCE OPTICAL CO.
1025 Mass. Phonee 425
Garage and Cab Co.
922 Mass. Phone 12
HUNSINGER MOTOR CO.
Table Model Radio
5-TUBE SUPER HETERODYNE
Three Styles
Leatherette
Walnut
White
$25.95
Morgan-Mack Motor Co.
609 Mass. Phone 277
FURNITURE COMPANY
PHONE 1192 928 MASS.
LAWRENCE SANITARY Milk & Ice Cream Co.
Is There a Ford In Your Future?
IF NOT
Better Keep the One In Your Past In Repair!
What You've Been Waiting For ... ANKLETS
White-or-Colors Rolled Top-or-Ribbed Style Sizes 8 to 10 $ _{1/2} $
25c—35c—59c
M&S SHOE STORE
(Successor to Fischer's)
(Mail Orders Filled—for three pair or more)